Filed under: Odds and ends, MobileMe
An incredible stolen Mac story without a final chapter
Update 2:30p ET 9/1: We've heard more from the theft victim; see the latest news on this crime story here.We're getting our share of crime stories lately, and today's is really a jaw dropper. I'm going to be sketchy on details and locations because there is an investigation underway.
Here's what we have so far. An East Coast man had his house broken into with 2 Macs and one PC stolen, along with some other household items of value.
One of the Macs was a laptop, and our victim bought a new MacBook Pro to replace it, and used a Time Machine backup to restore all his files. The crime was reported to police, who said they had no leads, but there had been a string of similar burglaries in the area for quite some time.
Jim didn't want to take control of the Mac, so he just watched, fascinated. Later, when activity on his missing computer stopped, he went to the network panel and grabbed an IP address, and took a screen shot of it.
This morning, he saw someone applying for a job online using the stolen laptop, and Jim now has the Social Security number, address and phone number used on the job application. Jim speculates it is possible the machine has been sold to someone and that is who was applying for the job. Or it could still be with the crooks.
He's contacted the police, and we don't know how this saga ends yet, but we'll let you know how it all works out. So far we've got a pretty smart victim and some really dumb crooks. Jim says he is sure he'll be renewing MobileMe when it's time.
Details at 11.
[Thanks to 'Jim' for sharing his experience with all of us]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Victor said 3:37PM on 8-31-2009
undercover does this as well. only a little more detailed because it takes a picture of the perp and contacts police. and there's no monthly fee :)
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Eric said 3:56PM on 8-31-2009
Link to it please?
spyker said 3:53PM on 8-31-2009
http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/
Diddle said 1:46AM on 9-01-2009
+1 for Undercover. I have no fear now and it's a one-time purchase!
Jonathan said 9:45AM on 9-01-2009
@Modano -
The skyhook database can get frighteningly accurate on my iPod Touch. I believe that is what they use for location feature on Google Maps.
In fact, Skyhook was more accurate than cell tower triangulation feature on my old Nokia phone, as that had a 1,000 m radius, while Skyhook had its circle pretty much right on me!
Ben Carroll said 3:43PM on 8-31-2009
Stories like these make me want to buy MobileMe. Now if it would be cool if they put a GPS in the macbooks and sent back the location...
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Modano said 3:53PM on 8-31-2009
You don't even need GPS. Snow Leopard can figure out your location using the SkyHook database. I don't know what level of detail it can get though. That's how it figures out your local time zone.
jackie said 3:48PM on 8-31-2009
this still boils down to what the police want to do about it. i had a MacBook Pro stolen from my home two years ago, and the iCal function was set to email me on certain calendar events. sure enough, my stolen computer emailed me a week after it was stolen. i engaged the verbose logging and got the IP address of where it was mailed from, and got a full address on the stolen comp. i gave this info to the police, who ran a background check on the person with my comp, and decided they 'didn't want to make trouble' for him, and DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with the information.
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Hal said 3:54PM on 8-31-2009
Same thing happened to a friend of mine. He got his MPB stolen and about a week later someone wanted to resell it to him. He said his cousin had a laptop to sell. My friend got the info on the location, the guy's name and the cops did NOTHING to help him recover the MPB. Cops have never ever helped me recover any stolen items. In my town they'll to busy giving out tickets to help with budget shortfalls.
demiurgical said 3:56PM on 8-31-2009
WTF they didn't want to make trouble for him?? nice to see our tax dollars at work -_-
Duncan said 6:44PM on 8-31-2009
I would have threatened to sue or something, that S**t is ridiculas.
Chad said 8:11PM on 8-31-2009
Yep, had the same problem with an admittedly lower value cell phone. I had GPS tracking on it, and after it was stolen located it in a house 3 blocks away. The cops came by, told me how cool that technology was, and then said they'd drive by and see if anyone outside was using a cell phone. They refused to even knock on the door, saying that the GPS location might not be accurate. Sure, maybe it's not, but you could pretty much guarantee my phone was in one of 3 houses right there... After they left I went back and knocked on the door myself, but could never get anyone to answer...
Blaktornado said 3:48PM on 8-31-2009
Awesome (the story - not that it was stolen). Again, like others are saying, this is making me want to buy MobileMe. All I need is a second Mac...
Regardless, this is good news. I'm glad the price tag is proving it's worth to people! You wouldn't get that with [insert name of alternative].
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SpinThis! said 5:35PM on 8-31-2009
Yeh MobileMe really shines if you have multiple Macs. I don't really use the service much for e-mail or disk space but the elegant syncing across Macs and iPhone is worth it to me for the price alone.
I can set a bookmark at work and when I come home, everything stays the same. Dock, calendars, mail rules, widgets, keychains, application preferences, and much more can be synced across multiple Macs. It comes in handy when it comes time to format the machine and rebuild it—after that's done, all I have to do is resync it and everything is back to where I like it.
Jak Logan said 5:03PM on 8-31-2009
I'm not experienced with MobileMe, but I'm guessing there isn't a giant notification that screen sharing has been enabled like there is in iChat?
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SpinThis! said 5:24PM on 8-31-2009
You guess right. There's just a "binoculars" icon that appears in the menubar that indicates the Mac is being watched with options to kill the session, etc.
melvinfaber said 5:31PM on 8-31-2009
While I don't use any Macs outside of my house, I'm thinking I need to look into how to set up Back To My Mac when I get home tonight, just to be safe. :P
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lalakrsfan said 5:52PM on 8-31-2009
Hope he gets his Mac back! This is why I bought Lojack for laptops for my new MBP from the apple store. I did some pretty extensive research before handing over my $100 for a 3 yr license and I chose lojack primarily because of their lojack recovery team who will work with the local police on my behalf. One of my uncles friends is with the SFPD and has talked about some cases where they recovered laptops because of lojack, He told my uncle about the relationship he has with the lojack recovery team and the help they provide in locating the laptop and the indentity of the user. Like a couple of the other posters said above, in a lot of cases if you or I reported the theft and provided the the location and user info ourselves, its less likely that the police will be motivated to do anything.
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MikeWard1701 said 6:14PM on 8-31-2009
Does 'Back to My Mac' require a 2nd Mac or can you use it within a web browser on a PC?
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Duncan said 6:45PM on 8-31-2009
you need a second mac I think